Sumer Is Icumen In is the title of a medieval English round of the mid-13th century. The middle English is pretty hilarious to sing aloud (Lhude sing cuccu!), but it feels appropriate to the day, which must be the first (okay maybe second?) sunny day in the last TWO WEEKS. April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but what are May showers supposed to bring? Floods, that’s what. We’ve been relatively fortunate in the GTA…

Anyway, on to other reasons to smile. Yesterday was the launch of Exile Editions’ CLI-FI: Canadian Tales of Climate Change. I have a story in it titled Children of the Sea which was inspired by the effects of climate change on Senegal’s Siné Saloum Delta. It was great to meet some of the other writers in the anthology, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book. This particular call for Canadian climate fiction was motivated by Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite writers.

A few days ago, I also received my contributor copy of Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy. It’s supposed to be released only on October 2017, but you can pre-order. A portion of Laksa Media’s net revenue from this will go directly to support the Kids Help Phone. My story in this anthology is titled The Bridge of Dangerous Longings and it’s about – you guessed it – a mysterious bridge. Doesn’t the book have a beautiful cover? It’s even better IRL! And it has an amazing list of authors (hah, I mean apart from yours truly.)

Upcoming news: I have a story titled The Jim-Aaargh School of Philosophy coming up in the Kurt Vonnegut-inspired “Cat’s Breakfast” anthology to be published by Third Flatiron in June. It’s a story about free will, reincarnation, and aliens. And I have a wicked-cool story coming out in August, which I can’t talk about yet.

On that note, just realized that I’ve sold most of the short fiction I’ve written. I’ve been concentrating on my novels this year, and that means there’s little time left to devote to new short stories. But short stories have a special place in my heart. I’ll have to figure out a way to keep writing them!

2 Responses to Sumer Is Icumen In (and other reasons to smile)

I remember singing that in primary school … although we only ever used the first verse because (with hindsight) if a bunch of preteens ever got to the line about a farting billygoat the universe would’ve imploded. 🙂